An-Nahda say 'the Tunisia we dream of needs everyone'

I'm at a packed press conference for An-Nahda, Tunisia's main Islamist party, in the Ariana district of Tunis. Starts late. It's standing room only, and incredibly hot - bottles of water are being handed out by a woman in a trouser suit. There are Tunisian, British, French, German and American journalists. I can count 15 people filming.

The panel is made up of four men - no women. "We believe participation itself is more important than any partisan successes," says the head of the election campaign. Then Rachid Ghannoushi, the party's leader, who was formerly imprisoned and exiled, says, "these will be the first real Arab elections", with no parties excluded. "There will be shortcomings in this first experiment, but we hope they will not undermine the general essence of holding real free and fair elections."

He says that many parties have been focused on criticising An-Nahda but claims the party is "committed to a pluralistic Tunisia. The Tunisia we dream of needs everyone". He and his party were not the only victims of the dictatorship. "We were the principle victims of Bourguiba and Ben Ali, but there were many victims."

On the question of women, which was a noticeable element in Ghannoushi's Guardian article on Monday: "In every activity, in every press conference, in every meeting, we need to emphasise our commitment to women's rights." (Just not on the panel.) He talks about "double discourse", by which I take to mean that An-Nahda talk the talk on women's rights, but people worry about whether they walk the walk. He says, "if we don't stick to our promises, then in one year, at the new elections, we would lose all those women's votes". He points to the fact that a woman who does not wear hijab heads An-Nahda's political list.

A questioner worries that An-Nahda's campaign, which sounds like "a paradise on earth", is a manoeuvre, a plot. How could he be sure that An-Nahda wouldn't go into an alliance with the more extremist Islamists? Ghannoushi answers: "not all Islamists are one thing, like not all leftists are one thing. Some Islamists believe elections are forbidden - so how could we, a political party, agree with them? Someone who builds with someone who destroys? Do you need to kill one another to prove there are differences?"

The conference ends with some pride. "The Arab spring did not stop at the limits of the Arab world but moved to Australia, Wall St, the world's capitals. Which shows the world needs change - the world's resources should not be in the hands of the elite. Tunisians are proud that this flame was ignited in Tunisia."